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Review: Fear Her (10th Doctor)

I remember putting off seeing this episode for as long as I could, as it was the only 10 & Rose one that I’d managed to miss. I wanted it to go on just a bit longer, you know. Anyway, let’s get to the discussion, shall we?

Episode:Fear Her by Matthew GrahamRating (1 to 5): 2.9Baddie: Chloe Webber/The IsolusRose is trapped: nowhere. Attacked twice, though. Almost fell into the closet.The Doctor is trapped: in a picture.The Doctor enjoys: edible ball bearings.The Doctor dislikes: cats, ever since he was chased by one in a wimple.Doctor-y Strangeness: Wandering about sniffing the air and looking at the residual ionic energy make the hairs stand up on the back of his manly hairy hand. And eating out of the jar. (Naughty boy)Scary Stuff: The Monster Dad in the closet and the Scribble Monster.Does someone local help out? Kel? Chloe and her Mum help themselves a wee bit at the end.What we learn: The Doctor was a dad once (which would explain Susan). The Doctor isn’t fond of cats. The Isolus are empathic beings with many siblings.My Favorite Bits: Fingers on lips! “Not gonna open it.” The “cop” banter between The Doctor and Rose. The Doctor eating with his fingers and Rose’s look of “no…”

Observations and musings:

Well, The Doctor is full of surprises this time around. He actually references a previous episode. “New Earth” and the cats, to be precise. He then references Star Trek with his Vulcan hand gesture. I loved the “fingers on lips” bit. It does the job of quieting the mob and gets new viewers ready for the “I was a dad once” line. He really doesn’t tell his companions very much does he? Mind you, it does make me wonder what eventually became of his granddaughter Susan. How about The Doctor eating directly from that jar, eh? The Doctor invokes The Shadow Proclamation again (yay!). One major theme of this episode is one of loneliness. The lonely Doctor empathizes with the lonely Isolus and lonely Chloe Webber. We know that The Doctor was a lonely child, and now that his people are gone it’s even worse. Rose even says “Who’s going to hold his hand now?” when she can’t find him. (This leaves her lonely, by the way).

In this episode, Rose is in her element. She notices that there is trouble first. She connects with the locals while The Doctor is being chased off of someone’s lawn. Rose even figures out what’s going on before The Doctor. Oh, yeah…and she saves The Doctor when he’s trapped. Best of all, she figures out that there will be a problem with the Monster Dad and she runs directly to the house to help Trish and Chloe. She figures out what to do and does it all without The Doctor’s help. I was amused that she opened two scary doors during this episode: the garage door and the closet. The first one held the Scribble Monster (yes, The Doctor saved her from that one) and the second held the Dad Monster drawing (and The Doctor arrived in time to close that door). I would like to point out that The Doctor was the one doing the distracting while Rose was the one investigating upstairs. So, she’s the one that sees the drawings first. Actually, the two of them work really well as a team. Just look at the way they talked themselves into Trish’s house. Also, when Rose figures out what is going on, The Doctor takes that info and runs with it. Rose has really matured during this season.

Whochick is a huge Doctor Who fan. She loves the show so much that she not only co-authors a blog on the topic, but also a podcast that you should listen to. Whochick resides in California with her husband (the Shadow Architect), and occasionally refers to herself in the third person.